Strategic Analysis of Marks & Spencer: Innovation, CSR, & Governance

This report provides a strategic analysis of Marks & Spencer, a British multinational retailer. It begins with an introduction outlining the company's background, industry structure, market position, and country market size. The report then examines Marks & Spencer's strategic management, focusing on innovation, strategic innovation, corporate social responsibility (CSR), governance, and ethical practices. It assesses the extent to which Marks & Spencer has succeeded in these areas compared to its competitors within the dynamic retail industry. The analysis covers the company's expansion strategies, innovation hubs, CSR objectives, and ethical conduct, highlighting its commitment to sustainable practices and stakeholder engagement. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the importance of strategic planning, innovation, and ethical practices for achieving success in a competitive market environment. It also references key strategies that are important for achieving the desired outcome in the future.

Strategic Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Establish company profile which includes industry structure, market position, country market
and size and background of company. .......................................................................................3
Analysis of the extent the Marks & Spencer has succeeded in following areas : Innovation and
Strategic Innovation,
CSR, governance and ethics in comparison to its competitors..................................................5
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management refers to administration and management of all resources which
are used by organization to fulfil goals and objectives. It involves various things to be
implemented like setting objectives, evaluating competitive environment, evaluating internal
organisation as well as ensuring that all strategies which organisation has made are properly
managed by organisation (Ansoff and et. al., 2018). The below report is based on Marks and
Spencer. It is a British multinational retailer which deals in clothing, food products as well as
home products. It was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. The below
report involves industry structure, country market and size, market position and background of
company. It also involve the extent to which company has engaged with and whether achieved
success in comparison with competition that is innovation and strategic innovation, CSR,
governance and ethics.
Establish company profile which includes industry structure, market position, country market
and size and background of company. Industry structure:- It refers to a planning tool which helps managers to enhance their
competitive strategy in accordance with environment. The industry structure determines
rules of competition as well as strategies so that company can improve their position and
become a strong competitor. In context with Marks and Spencer, they made various
strategies so that their market share can be secured. The retail sector includes selling of
goods to people though in small quantities. In this products are sold directly to consumers
and use various channels to earn more profit. There are many things in retail industry
which were invented like in 1929, supermarkets were invented, in 1950 shopping malls
started, in 1974 barcodes got initiated. In retail industry almost all products comes from
manufacturer which is transferred to wholesaler and then to retailer and ultimately to
customer. In context with UK, customers spend a lot of money in shopping whether they
do online shopping or go to shops. According to research, in March 2015, UK customers
spent approx £34 billion and most of it was spent on retail shops. According to Marks
and Spencer, they followed a oligopoly structure (Lasserre,2017). There is a fact that the
organisation is among the top oligopolistic it is difficult for new competitors to penetrate
market as company already established brand loyalty for their customers.

 Market Position:- It means determining image as well as identity of company so that
customers can make their perceptions which is initiated by product, price, place and
promotion. In context with Marks and Spencer, it is one of the top retail company and is
operating in 30 countries across the world. It has reach to a position where it is
considered as a premium brand in whole supermarket industry and it is seen that
customers are ready to pay high prices also because of its top position. They applied
various strategies through which they improved customer experience. According to
toady's market position, the brand has the most effective loyalty. Their market position is
high because it works only on one objective that is provide customers good better and
best products (Wheelen and et. al.,2017). Country market and size:- As a British multinational retailer the brand has expanded its
growth across all the world. Apart from British market the brand expanded its market in
India also. According to today's market research, company has around 71 stores and is
still investing in market with good market share. According to research, company has
earned revenue of Rs. 908 cr and is still expanding its market growth. It has also invested
in other Asian markets like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh. The largest contributing cities for
brand is Delhi and Mumbai.
 Brief background of company:- Marks and Spencer is among the top and largest retailer
in UK which has around 300 stores in their home country only. The company deals in
clothing, food, footwear, gifts and they also provide some financial services which
includes credit cards, life insurance , loans, pension. The company started life around 125
years ago when Michael Marks came to England. He was a owner of a market stall in
Leeds and determined everything in Price but as concept of Penny arrived, he stopped
selling expensive items. As the business was expanding and growing he approached Top
Spencer. He was good in accounting section and invested around 300 pound. The
company invented to launch clothing products because demand for ready-made clothing
was increasing (Rothaermel, 2016). Due to world war II, their main focus was on selling
stylish clothes from new fabrics like Nylon, Orlon. In 2008, the company made a joint
venture with Reliance retail. The brand was selling its products with” St. Michael label”.
The company main focus was on quality of products and maintained a good reputation
among all other brands. The brand has its vision and mission. The brand vision is to be at

top standard in context with other which are measured . The company has its mission also
to sell products which are of best quality. There are many values which are considered by
brand like trust, good customer service. Every organisation wants that their customers
should trust their company products and good customers services should be provided. So,
in context with Marks and Spencer, they followed their mission as well as values
effectively. They became top retailer because of the services which they provides. The
brand also established new products due top which their channels got expanded globally.
To improve their efficiency, they responded to customers needs effectively and never
ignored their expectations. They focused on one principal, to make a short term plan for
long term gain. It has very experienced and talented team, which invented various multi-
channels and established a global customer base. Mainly the target market for the brand
is middle aged women who basically wants their clothes to be stylish, comfortable. In
recent times, company felt a loss in their sales for clothing items though they applied
various strategies to enhance their fashion section. The biggest competitor for the brand is
John Lewis and is considered as a threat for them but they competed well with them as
they were selling high quality products and luxury food products (Velikorossov and et.
al., 2020).
Analysis of the extent the Marks & Spencer has succeeded in following areas : Innovation and
Strategic Innovation,
CSR, governance and ethics in comparison to its competitors.
Marks & Spencer is the multinational retailer with headquarter in UK and subsidiaries
operating globally. The company operates in a highly dynamic industry as the international
environment is being fluctuating and changing constantly. The company needs to understand this
environment and should constantly adjust according to that prevailing situation in order to be
successful while expanding (Schilling and Shankar, 2019).
At time of successful expansion the company needs to constantly innovate in technology
and products to sustain the new position in new market. Marks & Spencer expansion strategy is
to launch the innovation hub which focuses on identifying new ways of doing things. This team
consist more of creative and innovative people that helps the company to excel its innovation
criteria and helps in achieving the sustained advantage. The company plans is to hire new
strategic people with the new roles and responsibilities defined such as packaging innovation

manger, innovative business development manger etc. The company is restructuring its business
structure and strategy to bring in more innovative and positive culture in workplace (Morden,
2016). The company deploys the innovation and research agents outside the company which
helps them to know the new resources and capabilities existing and incorporating them will make
company acquire the advantage.

The company is using this advantage to an great extent and embedding innovation in all
operational functions and processes to gain the strong standing in market. The CSR is the
attainment of the sustainable practices to give back to the environment. This activity involves the
fulfilment of ethical practices to maintain the positive brand image. The Marks & Spencer CSR
objectives is to provide the internal and external stakeholders a better place to live in by
effectively contributing towards biodiversity conservation and reducing carbon prints. The
company properly developed an approach to address towards community development,

sustainable raw materials and reuse and recycling of packaging and food particles so left. The
Marks and Spencer is company which is regarded highly of it commitment and values. The
company fulfils its every role efficiently and in an efficient way (Ginter, Duncan and Swayne,
2018). The company implementation is also rapid. The company positive brand image so created
is credited of its societal roles it fulfils. The company develops an holistic way of fulfilling its
every role in community. The company has developed an Plan A which contains 100
commitments which comprises of environmental roles. The Marks & Spencer new gaols is to
reduce the use of fabrics and raw materials which harms the planet. The plan A developed by
company lacked the consumer participation but in new plan they have taken consumer also by
changing there living style (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson, 2016).
The Plan A developed by Marks & Spencer is as following;

Therefore, when company fulfils its environmental and societal roles they are bestowed with
various benefits such as employer choice of organisation, increased branding of the organisation
and increases the Public Relations of the company which helps in marketing of good efforts by
saving extra cost on promotion campaigns (Meyer, Neck and Meeks, 2017).
The Governance and ethics is the code of conduct to behave in an acceptable way in
society. The ethics are the moral principles which is being shared in the company which guides
the aligned actions of employees and employers in an organisation. The governance conduct of
employees state that the company will try to deliver in the long term profitability and growth to
the internal stakeholders of organisation. The company believes in the collaborative and integrity
approach that engages and develops the employees also. The company believes in trust and open
communication towards community they operate. Marks & Spencer holds the approach to work
collectively and ensuring the culture of the continuous improvement and innovation which drive
the positiveness in organisation. The setting of such goals and objectives will help the company
to build engaging and motivated environment which will foster the development of employees in
positive way (Hanson and et. al., 2016). For any company to achieve the success the workforce
and culture should be integrated positively. The success of company is accredited because of its
proficient and motivated employees. Therefore, the company should always focus on integral
development of suppliers, partners, customers and stakeholders in order to achieve the
competitive advantage (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez, 2018). The company in order to have
strong market standing should fulfil its objectives and practices in an ethical way. The values so
set by the company guides the actions and practices in a positive way. The company should
always conduct its practices in a virtue of moral and socially acceptable way. The continuous
innovations should be done in order to gain the operational excellence in technology and product
advancement. The pace with technology advancements helps the company to save its

unnecessary expenditures and waste. It eliminate the waste and inefficiencies and help the
company to gain advantage in a strategic way.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that an organisation can get success in
competitive market environment if their management formulates an effective strategic plan
defining roles and responsibilities of employees so that desired outcome can be gained in future
time period. For this, strategic management plays an important role in analysing, evaluating,
arranging, accessing and monitoring the activities in order to achieve desired goals and
objectives more effectively and efficiently. In this, innovation is an essential for an organisation
to introduce in their current offerings so as to maintain its strong customer base and also requires
to implement CSR activities so that the decision of market expansion can be successfully
executed.

REFERENCES
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